A Swedish Mini Marcos Race Car Re-surfaces in the USA

by Lt. Col. Andy Seward

The story of my Mini Marcos goes back to early 1967, when a rather
successful young Swedish Mini Cooper race car driver named Bo Elmhorn
decided he would try his luck at importing and selling Mini Marcos cars in
Sweden. Mr. Elmhorn was in a very good position to import Marcos cars, as
he was the Swedish BMC Competition Director / Consultant. Additionally, he
had already formed a partnership with Mr Picko Troberg, an exceptionally
quick driver who ruled Scandanavian race tracks in the late 1960s. Together
they founded Elmhorn-Troberg Racing Services, located in the city of
Stockholm.

Mr Elmhorn and Mr. Troberg‘s plan was to bring
Mini Marcos cars into Sweden and sell them either in kit form or as fully
built cars. Elmhorn-Troberg Racing Services would make a profit in selling,
building and preparing these customer cars, but they needed a way to create
additional public interest in the Mini Marcos. How could they accomplish
this? The plan they hit upon was to race a Mini Marcos in Scandanavian
events and use the resulting press coverage to advertise their cars and
sales services. And that is just exactly what they did.

Mini Marcos chassis #7073 was built as a fully completed car at Marcos‘
Greenland Mills factory in Bradford-on-Avon. Although the Marcos factory no
longer possesses the build date information for the Mini Marcos cars of that
era, Mr. Elmhorn fortunately took two photographs of his trip to England to
pick up this car, and these photos are dated March 1967. They show Mr.
Elmhorn with his Austin Estate Wagon tow vehicle pulling my Mini Marcos on a
single axle trailer. Both photos are a glimpse of days long since gone, as
they were each snapped in front of a different Public House where Bo
doubtless refreshed himself with a proper pint of English ale along his
route.

Chassis #7073 was built as a cross between a showroom demonstrator and a
full-up racing car. This dovetailed nicely with Mr. Elmhorn‘s intent to
sell both racing and road-going Mini Marcos cars in the Scandanavian
countries. In a Swedish magazine article in August 1967, a full-race BMC
Group 2 motor making a reported 120 horsepower was installed in this car.
If customers wished, a Group 5 motor with 150 horsepower was an available
option! The photos from this article show the #7073 wearing the same
unusual Minilite magnesium wheels as seen on the 1966 Le Mans Ballot-Lena
Mini Marcos, with the oddly cut-out center section between every other
spoke. As its registration paperwork was not yet finalized, red Swedish
"export" plates with the temporary registration number A6616 are taped to
the car. Other competition items clearly visible are the factory roll bar
that was bonded into the roof, a front oil cooler in a cut-out section under
the front license plate, a Barnacle mirror, and a twin-pipe rear exhaust.
Naturally, a Les Leston steering wheel was added for good measure, as
Elmhorn-Troberg Racing Services was the Les Leston equipment sales
representative for Sweden.

However, this car was not a true lightweight. It also sported a Marcos
factory carpet set, including door panels and covers for the spare tire well
and kick panels. And it had a complete set of Triplex glass windows, which
were incongruous in a race car but made perfect sense for a car designed as
much to whet potential buyers‘ interest as well as compete on the race track.

During 1967 — 1969, now officially registered as AA6304,
Bo and Picko competed with #7073 in the Group 4 Prototype category of the "SM for
Sportbilar", or Swedish Championship for Sportscars. Excepting one race at
the Roskildering in Denmark, Mr. Elmhorn believes this car‘s entire
competition history occurred in Sweden. The Mini Marcos was mainly
relegated to mid-pack placings during these events, finding stiff
competition from highly prepared Lotus Sevens and Porsches. However, Bo
recalls having a lot of fun on the track with AA6304 regardless, and the
publicity gained from racing had its desired effect. By his reckoning,
Elmhorn-Troberg Racing Services sold 18 Mini Marcos cars over the period of
the next few years. Not many, but enough to make it worth his while.

In 1968, Elmhorn-Troberg Racing Services published their version of the
Mini Marcos sales brochure. In it, AA6304 was used for all of the exterior
photos. Another, 850cc-engined Mini Marcos was used for the interior and
dashboard pictures. Additionally, AA6304 was the subject
of a unique pen and ink sketch for the cover of Elmhorn-Troberg‘s company
sales brochure, its registration number clearly visible in the artwork.

By 1969, Bo was ready to sell AA6304. The BMC Group 2 race motor was
removed and the chassis sold with a "cooking" motor to a Swedish helicopter
pilot named Sven Nillson. Mr Nillson undertook a remarkably thorough and
thoughtful restoration of the car, designing and incorporating some unique
features that remain to this day. Apparently dissatisfied with the Mini
Marcos‘ original Cooper S instrumentation, Sven Nillson built a highly
professional dashboard using period Jaeger instruments. This resulted in a
much more complete set of gauges, including a speedometer, 8000RPM
tachometer, oil temperature and pressure, water temperature and a fuel level
indicator. He also designed a fresh air intake for the Mini Marcos. This
system takes cool external air from an ex-helicopter scoop grafted onto the
bonnet, and pulls it through a re-circulating fan into the cockpit. Mr.
Nillson also fabricated an aluminum swirl tank under the bonnet that removes
air from the coolant. All of his work was of a very high quality and rather
ingenious.

After a few years, Mr. Nillson sold AA6304.
In keeping with a new Swedish vehicle registry scheme which applied to all
vehicles effective in 1972, chassis #7073 was given a new registration
number of AYR394. Fortunately I have a period copy of the original Swedish
Motor Vehicle Registry Office's document detailing the change of registry
numbers. AYR394 next went through a succession of reasonably caring owners
before Mr. Calle Berntsson purchased it in 1986.
Mr. Berntsson rebuilt the motor and gearbox with a 1380cc Austin motor and a
4-synchro gearbox, intending to use it as a quick road car for club meetings
and nice weekend drives. Calle owned this car until I bought it from him in
January of this year. He stored it in a lock-up on the grounds of Goteborg‘s
Swedish Army Field Artillery Post, where it snuggly shared room with Calle‘s
wonderful 1959 Mini Mk1 and a friend‘s Triumph Spitfire Mk2 race car.
However, when Calle‘s interests turned to early USA "hot rods",
AYR394 was surplus to his requirements and he was ready to sell it.
Fortunately for me, he then posted his Mini Marcos for sale on the Internet
at www.mobile.de, and I saw his advertisement.

I made the first of two trips to Sweden in late 2002 to meet with Calle
and see the Mini Marcos. After meeting Calle and following him to his
lock-up, he opened the doors of his garage. I caught my first glimpse of
#7073, covered in dustsheets in the dark corner. Then Calle turned on the
lights and whisked the dustcovers off of the bodywork, I knew instantly that
this was a real gem of a car, and that I wanted to buy her. A quick drive
around the grounds of the Army post and I was fully convinced that this
little car a real jewel.

Once home again, and after many emails and a tortuous international bank
transaction that took weeks to complete, I paid Calle for the Mini Marcos. I
borrowed a trailer from a local Porsche speedshop and drove the 15 hours
from my home near Maastricht, Netherlands up through Germany, across Denmark
and over to Sweden. There I met Calle and MMOC member Henrik Hansson.
Together we loaded #7073 onto the trailer and, after saying our good-byes, I
slowly brought my Mini Marcos back home.

Since then, I was re-posted to the United States. My
Mini Marcos came with me, of course! It is one of very few in the USA, and
creates quite a stir when it appears at car shows or meetings. He is
currently in my garage, awaiting a custom Road/Rally unleaded cylinder head
from Midlands Engineering Developments (MED) in the UK, as the old head was
showing signs of wear and bent a pushrod because the valve-train geometry
was not quite correct. He‘s become a part of our family, too. My 4-year old
daughter immediately nicknamed #7073 "the Elmo car", after the
Sesame Street children‘s TV show character. And this name stuck;
"Elmo" is an apt choice. He is a little red monster, after all.